Sessions of the general assembly are held biennially, beginning on the Wednesday after the first Monday in January, in odd numbered years. The senate is composed of so members elected biennially from 33 senatorial districts, and the house of repre sentatives of 120, elected biennially and chosen by counties accord ing to their population, each county having at least one repre sentative, no matter how small its population. The pay for both senators and representatives is four dollars per day for a period not exceeding 6o days, and mileage ; should the session be prolonged the extra service is without compensation.
There is a supreme court consisting of a chief justice and four associates, elected by popular vote for eight years, and a superior or circuit court, composed of 20 judges elected by the people in each of 20 districts for a term of eight years. Minor civil and criminal cases are tried before a justice of the peace or municipal judge. The county officials are the sheriff, a coroner, a treasurer, a register of deeds, a surveyor and three or five commissioners, elected for two years ; a clerk of the court elected for four years; a county board of education, elected or appointed for two years; and a superintendent of schools and a superintendent of public welfare, appointed for a term of two years.
Finances.—North Carolina was one of the few States in the Union in 1936, that had no State tax on property. The total of the State's general fund revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1936, was $35,525,852; the principal sources being sales ($10, income ($8,126,402), franchise ($7,260,124), licence highway fund ($1,000,000), gasolene ($912,467), and beer ($624,608) taxes. The average rate of county taxation in 1936 was around $9.0o per $1,000 of valuation on assessed prop erty values of $2,184,061,652. The chief sources of revenue of the state highway fund were gasolene taxes ($19,182,868), automobile licences ($6,938,143), and a contribution from the Federal Gov ernment ($5,451,363). General fund disbursements for the fiscal year 1936 were $37,736,998. Of this amount the chief disburse ments were for State educational institutions ($28,184,433), gen eral administration and governmental costs ($3,135,472), interest sinking funds and debt payments ($2,487,015), and maintenance of charitable and correctional institutions ($1,674,292). Of the special fund disbursements the greater were for road construction and public works interest ($7,493,802), and general governmental costs ($5,294,000). The total indebtedness of the State on June 3o, 1936, was $166,494,000 in bonds. Of this bonded debt, $94,296,000 were for highway construction, $57,863, 000 for educational and charitable institution improvement, $11, 835,000 for public school building bonds, $2,500,000 World War Veterans Loan bonds, and the remainder for funding and mis cellaneous improvements.
Education.—The public school system of North Carolina has made remarkable and well rounded progress since 1900. The total school expenditures increased from $1,248,157 in 1901 to $37, 274,000 in 1930, or from $2.87 per capita of enrolment to $43.00;
since then, as a result of economies made during the depression, public school expenditures dropped to $22,557,000 in 1934 or $25.19 per capita. In 1901 there were 8,32o teachers and enrolled pupils as compared with 22,472 teachers and 895,525 pupils in 1934. In addition, in 1934, there were 6,223 pupils regis tered in the private and parochial schools of the State. The high school enrolment increased from 63,499 in 1923-24 to in 1929-30, and to 149,006 in 1933-34. The private high schools had an enrolment of 2,270 in 1933-34. Of the total public school en rolment of the State in 614,784 were white and 280,741 were coloured ; these comprised 82.8% of the white school popula tion and 85.4% of the negro. The average number of days at tended for whites and negroes were 137 and 129 respectively. A program of vocational education as a part of the State's policy of public education was inaugurated in 1917 with the aid of Federal funds. There were in 1935 19,055 pupils taking instruc tion in agriculture and 12,044 studying home economics. The average annual salary for all teachers, supervisors and principals in 1934 was $576.
Chief among the State institutions of higher learning is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, chartered in 1789 and opened in 1795, one of the oldest State universities in the country and one of the oldest universities in the South. In 1935-36 it had a total enrolment of 3,010 students, of whom most were resident students during the main term. Other schools maintained by the State are the North Carolina College of Agri culture and Engineering at Raleigh, the North Carolina college for women at Greensboro, the East Carolina Teachers college at Greenville, the Cullowhee State normal school at Cullowhee and the Appalachian State normal school at Boone. State-supported negro institutions include the Negro Agricultural and Technical college of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Winston-Salem Teachers college at Winston-Salem, North Carolina college for negroes at Durham, and normal schools at Fayetteville and Elizabeth City. A school for the Cherokee Indians of Robeson county is located at Pembroke. Among the non-State supported institutions of higher education Duke university, formerly Trinity college, at Durham, is the greatest. It received from the late James B. Duke the sum of $6,000,000 for building and an endow ment fund estimated to amount to anywhere from $8o,000,000 to $100,000,000, one of the largest foundations for education and hospitalization in the world. Well known sectarian schools are Wake Forest college at Wake Forest; Davidson college at Davidson; Greensboro college for women at Greensboro; Guil ford college (co-ed.) near Greensboro; Lenoir-Rhyne college at Hickory; Catawba college at Salisbury; Meredith college at Raleigh; Belmont Abbey college at Belmont ; Elon college at Elon; and Atlantic Christian college at Wilson. Institutions for negroes include Shaw university at Raleigh, Johnson C. Smith university at Charlotte, Livingston university at Salisbury and St. Augustine's school at Raleigh.